Friday, 10 October 2014

MIGUNA MIGUNA'S CLOSE LOOK AT RAILA ODINGA'S KITCHEN CABINET

Mr
Miguna Miguna, who until last August was one of the PM’s top allies and
confidantes, says Mr Odinga relies, above all, on a close team of relatives and
political partners.

At
the heart of that group is a small circle of relatives and senior employees in
the Office of the Prime Minister, including Mr Odinga’s wife Ida, and ODM MPs
Oburu Odinga, James Orengo, Jakoyo Midiwo and Anyang’ Nyong’o and his top
aides, Caroli Omondi and Mohamed Isahakia.

Mr
Odinga’s inner circle is advised by a “think tank” which, Mr Miguna writes in
his new memoirs, Peeling Back the Mask: A Quest for Justice in Kenya, has
involved a number of informal advisers over the past few years.

Mr
Odinga does not always take their advice. Mr Miguna depicts the PM as a man who
consults widely but is sometimes slow to take decisive action.

He
says Mr Odinga is almost constantly on his mobile phone discussing political
events with various players, but complains that the PM is rarely worried about
his phone being tapped and has consistently resisted efforts to get him to be
more security conscious.

Mr
Miguna’s book has triggered animated discussions about the unflattering
portrait it paints of the PM. But beyond the attacks on Mr Odinga’s character,
the book offers some of the most revealing insights about the ODM leader’s
approach to politics, a valuable tool because apart from Presidents Kibaki and
Moi, no single figure has dominated Kenyan politics in the last decade and a
half than the PM.

Mr
Odinga comes across as a political bruiser who takes the long view in strategising
how to acquire power and understands victory comes to those who are patient and
adaptable in the struggle for public office.

Mr
Miguna offers this story about a meeting he held with Mr Odinga before the last
elections where they discussed Mr Odinga’s contest for the ODM-Kenya ticket
against Mr Kalonzo Musyoka.

“We
moved onto the tricks and tactics Kalonzo had tried to use to win the ODM-K
presidential nominations (before he eventually ran away with the party). Raila
had told me a memorable thing, which I should share. He said, ‘Ja-Nyando (Son
of Nyando), in wrestling; when two people wrestle, they do everything to win.

“One
may try to grab his opponent’s crotch; the other may try to trip the opponent;
but in the end, the one who wins is either the one who remains standing or on
top of the other. Politics is not any different. Everyone must do whatever he
can to win. So, let Kalonzo do everything he can to win…”

“There
was only one laptop which Dick (Ogolla) carried and used. Raila distrusted
note-taking. He has, on occasions, lashed out at me with fury, out of the blue,
for my note-taking. Perhaps this was partly a throwback to his ‘underground’
past, when everything was committed to memory for fear that Moi’s Special
Branch boys would use any written record to obtain quick and easy convictions
from trumped-up sedition and treason charges.

“But
this was a new era. (Much later, I came to wonder if Raila might have been
consciously trying to discourage record-keeping as a way of concealing his
various business deals. He didn’t want someone recording what might turn up
later as ‘evidence’ against him.)”

Mr
Miguna describes Mr Odinga’s media strategy as one which revolves around the
view that whether one is covered positively or negatively, media exposure is
good for a politician because it boosts their name recognition and makes them
seem all-powerful.

He
says this strategy was applied in the battle for the ODM-K nomination, the
umbrella opposition party before the formation of ODM.

“Kalonzo
might have still been artificially projected as being ahead in the polls, but
the chattering classes and the ordinary people considered Raila the de facto
leader of ODM-K.

He
had received extensive media coverage. Hardly a day went by without a
newspaper, television outlet or radio station featuring Raila, positively or
negatively.

Consummate
mobiliser

The
conventional wisdom is that “any coverage is good coverage for a politician”.
We understood that most people wouldn’t remember the story lines; they would
only remember the name of the person at the centre of the story. The mere fact
Raila’s name was on everyone’s lips, from the market place to the private
members’ clubs, was good for his candidacy.

“We
intensified the positive buzz about Raila by feeding the media all kinds of
information on Raila; his childhood, his detention without trial, his brief
Kenya Bureau of Standards stint, his exile, and his escapades in opposition
politics.”

Mr
Miguna casts Mr Odinga’s inner circle of advisers as being frequently divided.
Mr Miguna was an integral part of the team and his low opinion of his colleagues
shines through in every page.

He
accuses Mr Orengo of being a “lyrical sycophant in the king’s court”, Prof
Nyong’o and Mr Orengo are jointly described as “timid, cowardly and
hypocritical” while Dr Isahakia and Mr Omondi are similarly dismissed by Mr
Miguna.

In
the end, the picture Mr Miguna paints of Mr Odinga the politician is one that
Kenyans will be familiar with from some earlier sources, including the US
cables revealed by Wikileaks: A complex, driven politician who is nevertheless
surrounded by a quarrelling group of advisers who give the impression of
dysfunction in the PM’s office.